Professional Capacity for Royal Audit Authority for Better Governance, Final Phase



Contract partner: GNHC / RGoB - Gross National Happiness Commission - Royal Government of Bhutan Country: Bhutan Funding amount: € 200.000,00 Project start: 15.10.2019 End: 31.12.2021

Short Description:

Overall goal


Due to COVID-19 related travel and quarantine restrictions the majority of project activities could not be implemented. ADA and GNHC therefore agreed to discontinue the project per 31.12.2021. A new project with adjusted activities was approved with an implementation period of 01.01.2022 – 31.03.2023 (Project Nr. 2702-00/2021).


The overall development objective of the third phase of the support from the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) is to enhance the professional and institutional capacity of the Royal Audit Authority (RAA), specifically focusing on long-term training courses which will contribute towards better auditing, quality reporting and institutional credibility.


Expected results


Output 1. Advanced professional qualification and knowledge of auditors;

5 auditors with advanced qualification (4 auditors with CPA qualification -2 female, 2 male and 1 auditor with a master’s in economics at the University of Vienna, Austria).


Output 2. Increased capacity in emerging audit issues.

30 auditors trained in-country on hydropower auditing; 4 auditors (2 female, 2 male) attended ex-country fellowship Programme.


Target group / Beneficiaries


The target group of this project are the auditors of the RAA as it will support their professional capacity development. In total, 39 persons will directly benefit from the project.


Activities


5 auditors (3 females and 2 males) will receive ex-country training, 4 auditors will undergo in-country long term training and approximately 30 RAA staff members will undergo in-country training on hydropower audit. In particular, female employees will be encouraged to take part in the training course. Wherever appropriate, more or equal number of female participants will be nominated for the courses.


Context


The overall project goal is aligned to the Royal Audit Authority’s (RAA) Strategic Plan 2015–2020, the 12th Five-Year Plan (2018–2023) and the UN SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions). The third phase of ADC's contribution aims at further enhancing the professional and institutional capacity of the RAA, to contribute towards better and improved auditing, quality reporting and institutional credibility.

Notwithstanding enhanced individual competencies and institutional development, additional capacity gaps have been identified in the recommendations from the Supreme Audit Institution-Performance Measurement Framework (SAI-PMF) Report-RAA, PEFA report 2016, RAA’s strategic plan 2015-2020 and 12th Five Year Plan. The courses have been prioritized based on the need analysis, consultations with employees and endorsed by the Human Resources and Governance Committee. The project will adopt both ex-country and in-country long/short term trainings as the main instrument in the delivery of the required outputs. The main output is increased knowledge and qualification of auditors.


This continued effort of the RAA to improve its capacity reflects the organisational will to effectively deliver the constitutional mandate, i.e. to audit and report on the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in the use of public resources.

project number 2702-01/2019
source of funding OEZA
sector Staatsführung & Zivilgesellschaft, allgemein
tied
modality Project-type interventions
marker Environment: 1, Democracy: 2
  • Policy marker: are used to identify, assess and facilitate the monitoring of activities in support of policy objectives concerning gender equality, aid to environment, participatory development/good governance, trade development and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. Activities targeting the objectives of the Rio Conventions include the identification of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and desertification.
    • 1= policy is a significant objective of the activity
    • 2= policy is the principal objective of the activity
  • Donor/ source of funding: The ADA is not only implementing projects and programmes of the Austrian Development Cooperation , but also projects funded from other sources and donors such as
    • AKF - Foreign Disaster Fund of the Austrian federal government
    • BMLFUW - Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water
    • EU - Funds of the European Commission
    • Others - various other donors are listed in ADA’s annual business report.
  • Type of Aid – Aid modalities: classifies transfers from the donor to the first recipient of funds such as budget support, core contributions and pooled programmes and funds to CSOs and multilateral organisations, project-type interventions, experts and other technical assistance, scholarships and student costs in donor countries, debt relief, administrative costs and other in-donor expenditures.
  • Purpose/ sector code: classifies the specific area of the recipient’s economic or social structure, funded by a bilateral contribution.
  • Tied/Untied: Untied aid is defined as loans and grants whose proceeds are fully and freely available to finance procurement from all OECD countries and substantially all developing countries. Transactions are considered tied unless the donor has, at the time of the aid offer, clearly specified a range of countries eligible for procurement which meets the tests for “untied” aid.